Amazon offers DVD-quality movie downloads

Amazon.com has launched it's new digital video download service, Unbox, which offers thousands of television shows, movies and other video content from more than 30 studio and network partners including 20th Century Fox and Paramount.

The new service is the only one of its kind to offer DVD-quality resolution, according to a press release by the company, which also boasts, "Unbox offers triple the video quality of the leading commercial Internet video services, delivering content encoded at 2,500 kilobits per second using the ultra-efficient VC-1 Advanced Profile codec.."

Another seemingly unique feature of this service, is Unbox RemoteLoadTM, which allows consumers to buy from one PC and download to another.

Unbox also uses progressive download, which means users can begin watching their content before the download has completed. "This means the typical cable broadband customer can start watching any Unbox TV show or movie within five minutes of ordering," adds the press release.

Television episodes currently cost $1.99 each, with most movies priced between $7.99 and $14.99. Renting videos for $3.99 each is also an option for consumers in the U.S., whereby videos can be stored on a PC for 30 days, but once the user has started watching it, they have 24 hours before it expires.

"Amazon Unbox offers TV and movie enthusiasts a fast, convenient way to watch thousands of their favorite videos from around the world," said Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president of digital media. "Now Amazon.com customers can choose to get videos delivered to their doorstep from Amazon's DVD store or choose Amazon Unbox and download DVD-quality picture movies or television shows to their PC."